The Pistons are just an average team that will not go far in the playoffs this year if they continue to play their current style. I'm just not loving watching the boys play because the young-uns get very little burn and we have a promising rookie who doesn't even get a whiff of the court. Can't Joe Dumars see his man-love for Curry is blinding him to the fact that a journeyman player with a strong work ethic is still a crappy coach? Things are getting so bad I'm starting to miss the Twitch!

One thing seems to be working well and that's Hamilton coming off the bench, Rip is a virtual scoring machine now. Stuckey seems to be in a funk the last few games and isn't his usual self. Prince had 1 rebound tonight and that's just pathetic. What is it about the Pistons that teams just thrive on scoring at will against us?

Can Kwame Brown be sent to the NDBL? How about to Khimki and let's get Carlos Delfino back, maybe Toronto would take Kwame and Sheed off our hands for Delfino's rights and Bosh. They can have AI as well and I wouldn't mind Jermaine O'Neal for the rest of the season.

Curry did not put Afflalo, nor Amir, in the first half. We give up 62 points. Down 15, and it looking like no way we have a chance, he gets religion and puts Afflalo in a while, then Amir in a while. Gee, the game gets tighter. Defense is important. No way Curry should have forgotten that in the first half.

Kwame started, even though Curry said he was done with Kwame starting. Sure, Kwame should have played in this one, but why start him. All it did was two things: Make Curry seem even more wishy washy than before, and make Curry forget to play Amir in the first half.

Briefly. AI had a great game on offense, drawing tons of fouls. Rip hit a bunch of shots, another fine scoring game off the bench. Not enough from the rest of the team.

Yes, this was a second of a back to back, but no, with as deep a team as we have, its just poor coaching that lost this game. Curry is clueless as to how to stop inside scoring from the other team. Its real simple, the more he uses two bigs in a game, leaving nobody able to cover plays to the middle, the other teams will only do plays to our middle. Unless thy go braindead, the will come along and gladly take all the free cheese we care to put out for them. Curry has sent out an invitation to the league - look league, I'm stupid, I don't play a power forward. I don't protect the basket. Please feel free to score all day long inside on the Pistons. Then I can tell my team, look, they are scoring inside on us. Stop it.

Curry has sent out an invitation to the league look league, I'm stupid, I don't play a power forward. I don't protect the basket. Please feel free to score all day long inside on the Pistons. Then I can tell my team, look, they are scoring inside on us. Stop it.

There are a lot of things that people suggest that could improve the team but really, that's not enough. So we do a little better and salvage a respectable playoff exit somewhere down the line. The problems we faced the last 3 years are still there. Our defense is only as good as our tempo.

We blame Flip. We blame Billups. But the real strength of the team...the thing that we lost...was the chemistry. It was a sort of chemistry that led to a defensive minded identity. The Pistons used to be a great defensive team and a good rebounding team. Games looked ugly and points were low. That made up for the lack of overwhleming talent on the offensive side.

Now we take that level of talent and try to win with offense. and maybe good defense. If you look at the top teams, everyone has great talent. Much better than ours. Hell if you look at the middle teams, we don't stand out much anymore.

So unless someone rises out of our talent puddle and sprouts Ben Wallace abilities, we're hosed. We have 1 HOFer and 3 pretty good players and then some other guys who belong in the NBA somewhere but really don't stand out.

Curry did not put Afflalo, nor Amir, in the first half. We give up 62 points. Down 15, and it looking like no way we have a chance, he gets religion and puts Afflalo in a while, then Amir in a while. Gee, the game gets tighter. Defense is important. No way Curry should have forgotten that in the first half.

Kwame started, even though Curry said he was done with Kwame starting. Sure, Kwame should have played in this one, but why start him. All it did was two things: Make Curry seem even more wishy washy than before, and make Curry forget to play Amir in the first half.

Briefly. AI had a great game on offense, drawing tons of fouls. Rip hit a bunch of shots, another fine scoring game off the bench. Not enough from the rest of the team.

Yes, this was a second of a back to back, but no, with as deep a team as we have, its just poor coaching that lost this game. Curry is clueless as to how to stop inside scoring from the other team. Its real simple, the more he uses two bigs in a game, leaving nobody able to cover plays to the middle, the other teams will only do plays to our middle. Unless thy go braindead, the will come along and gladly take all the free cheese we care to put out for them. Curry has sent out an invitation to the league - look league, I'm stupid, I don't play a power forward. I don't protect the basket. Please feel free to score all day long inside on the Pistons. Then I can tell my team, look, they are scoring inside on us. Stop it.

Lee, bust out those Afflalo stats. I do lean your way slightly in your argument with Low (there is some correlation). I don't think Afflalo is the sole reason for wins last season, and I don't think we are anywhere near .500 with Afflalo (we'd have a couple more L's than we did), but I do think his impact defensively is enough to skew some games in our favor.

Unlike Low, I definitely believe that a guy that plays 12mpg can change the outcome of a game one way or another, which Low seems to think is impossible. Sure, we need the guys who play 30+ minutes to play well, but the minutes other minutes aren't just throwaways. Games change on 1 possession all the time. 12 minutes is an entire quarter of the game.

Yep... call them something else please. This team is the anti-Pistons.... they playe selfishly and they don't defend. Call them whatever you like, but they aren't the Pistons.

This team is a mockery to the city of Detroit and to the history of the franchise.

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Hate to say it but thoughout the 50+ years there have been far more years like this than that 04 team. At least we are still .500. Seems like we have lost more than we have won but the team still is over .500.

Positive I will take out of this game is how good Rip and AI looked during that 3rd Q rally. Some chemistry to build on there. Still a little giddy about the prospect of a trade.

I understand where you guys are coming from. I just think there's WAAAAAY too much importance attached to players who aren't THAT good. They can be good. They can improve, but to attach so much credibility to guys who don't play enough to be THAT effective and who aren't THAT effective when they do play just doesn't do it for me.

I welcome the debate and I will always "attack the post and not the poster."

Hate to say it but thoughout the 50+ years there have been far more years like this than that 04 team. At least we are still .500. Seems like we have lost more than we have won but the team still is over .500.

Positive I will take out of this game is how good Rip and AI looked during that 3rd Q rally. Some chemistry to build on there. Still a little giddy about the prospect of a trade.

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The only positive I can take away from this game is Rip's hot shooting. The guy is starting to really find his groove now.

Well, here's my in the paint report. It's about at grotesque as it gets. We just made Phoenix look like the most physical team in NBA history.

Point blank shots-
Det: 6-16
Pho: 27-38

Other shots in the paint-
Det: 5-8
Pho: 6-14

Outside jump shots-
Det: 25-61 (41%)
Pho: 8-31 (26%)

This doesn't even consider how many times they got fouled in the paint, which was about 15 times. So, by my calculations, Phoenix just got about 86 points in the paint against us with FT's included. Maybe not every FT was the result of a foul in the paint, but it is still easily over 75 points in the paint with a conservative FT backout.

So, Iverson, Rip, and Stuckey were all in the top 3 in paint attempts. Totally guard dominated offense. Kwame had 2 FG's in the paint in 19 minutes, and that was as good as anyone on our team except for AI. How does Dyess play 29 minutes and only get 1 shot in the paint?

Well, here's my in the paint report. It's about at grotesque as it gets. We just made Phoenix look like the most physical team in NBA history.

Point blank shots-
Det: 6-16
Pho: 27-38

Other shots in the paint-
Det: 5-8
Pho: 6-14

Outside jump shots-
Det: 25-61 (41%)
Pho: 8-31 (26%)

This doesn't even consider how many times they got fouled in the paint, which was about 15 times. So, by my calculations, Phoenix just got about 86 points in the paint against us with FT's included. Maybe not every FT was the result of a foul in the paint, but it is still easily over 75 points in the paint with a conservative FT backout.

So, Iverson, Rip, and Stuckey were all in the top 3 in paint attempts. Totally guard dominated offense. Kwame had 2 FG's in the paint in 19 minutes, and that was as good as anyone on our team except for AI. How does Dyess play 29 minutes and only get 1 shot in the paint?